My only complaint is that these writers use words like "booze" and "hangover" in their breezy, friendly, Internet-inspired writing style. They did it to is-wine on a site called Daily Candy in NYCity. But then, any press is good press.

Incidentally, take a look at April's Wine and Spirits Magazine. There you will find yours truly smiling (in a bad photograph) underneath a blurb about is-wine.Page 26.

The site I sent you guys to is the on-line presence of the largest circulation Weekly Newspaper here in LA. They lifted those words out of OUR CATALOGUE:

We have a long editorial about how to avoid hangovers and histamine reactions and then at the end of the book we have a headline that says "Yes the store is called WINE EXPO but we have a huge selection of Booze, Hootch, Spirits, Water of Life, Likker, you know, the Hard Stuff:" with a listing of Tequilas, Rhums, Malts and other distilates.

I was impressed that they actually paid attention to our rants re industrial wines....

Goes to show you that you have to be careful what you say 'cause a journalist (relax ww; I was one too) will invariably use it against you.

The context in which "booze" and "hangover" was used in the article made no reference to your context of the words in your newsletter. They made it sound like wine is booze and its imbibers get hangovers, which of course isn't exactly the case--always. ...

Foodie, we find that MANY people get what they call "mungheadedness" or "I was wiped out the next morning" (both of which are just newspeak for "hangover") from WINE and we are glad to help with an editorial explaining de-hydration, histamine reactions and the like. I also have no problem with the fact that most folks are not remotely serious about wine and thus lump all alcohol together, that's just life. It could be much worse: Once when I was working in the 25,000 bottle (open on one end to public view) cellar at Antoine's in New Orleans, a teatotaler from Tennessee looked in, gasped and exclaimed "Lordy Jay-sus! Just look at all that SIN in there!"

They spelled our names right, got the phone numbers right and told the masses to trust us, works for me.....

As I said: any press is good press! But I still hate the word booze, and I have never had a hangover in my entire life--well, maybe a few times but it was always because someone else filled my glass when I wasn't looking. ...

Foodie, whether you like a word or not, you've got to "appropriate" it to "empower" yourself the same way Black folk have "the N word" and gays have the "F" word (the one brits use for ciggies, not the verb) or it will be used against you. We proudly sell booze and hootch and even Grandaddy's Corn Likker plus Brewsky, Barley Pop and Hop Water.....

Ciggies--glad you identified the F word you meant. I was about to call the thought police on you; or should I get the booze police?

I remember how Curmy hated when words were used against the industry. He got on my case whenever I drifted into "beverage alcohol." But I think booze is even worse, with its Prohibition-era connotations and its generally slang reference to drinking for drunking.

Holy Bejesus, have I been crass as a cow muffin all my ever-lovin' put-together by usin ALL them descriptive adjectives? My N......F... Boozin' Buddy don' seem to mind as long as I supply the hootch.WW

Dorothy Parker once said, "you can lead a whoretoculture but you can't make her think."

Sounds like you good ole boys discharge my insightful, penetrating, observations as prudish, pedestrian and maybe even subversive. But I maintain that to booze is to roon (as we used to say in Brooklyn) the good reputation of a solid citizen sipping his/her sw or wr (figure it out ww) at the table with the average 2.5 children and the dog eagerly awaiting his/her sage wisdom regarding the perfect marriage of the dinner and the glass of clear nectar that accompanies it.

But then, he/she could simply proclaim, "this good booze makes me want to down more and get rip-roaring wined out so that I can ravage my partner right here in front of the children, the dog and whomever might be looking in; not a bad steak either!"

No, we are pointing out the cultural and linguistic differences betwixt the uptight East and the freewheelin' West. Probably why there are so many ex-pat New Yawkers and Bostonians here. Seriously, we speak a different dialect here and the words with the evil connotations are things like To-kill-ya for Tequila and Liquid Quaaludes for Jaegermeister, "booze" is just Duuuuude-speak for party supplies and MANY of those dudes are partners in law firms, have five hundred cases in their lockers and still say, "Roberto, HELP! I need to stock up on booze for the weekend in Santa Barbara"